Door assembly



K. O. JONSSON DOOR ASSEMBLY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 29, 1968 Sept. 2, 1969 K. o. JONSSON DOOR AS S EMBLY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 29, 1968 United States Patent 3,464,161 DOOR ASSEMBLY Karl O. Jonsson, Elvagen 4, Tillberga, Sweden Filed Jan. 29, 1968, Ser. No. 701,141 Claims priority, application Sweden, Jan. 27, 1967, 1,229/ 67 Int. Cl. E05d .15/56, 15/38 US. Cl. 49-197 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a door asembly comprising a door frame and a vertically swingable door and, more particularly, to a door assembly of the type most often used in motor car garages. In one of the most common designs the door proper does at each of its two top corners have a roller journaled for longitudinal movement in a rail of channel-shaped cross-section. It is also general practice to dispose, at each side of the door opening, a two-armed lever pivotally connected to the door frame and having its one end articulated to the movable door, whereas the opposite end is connected to a heavy spring action between the lever and a stationary point on or near the frame. Tiltable doors of that kind and of similar types are, however, subjected to several disadvantages both as far as the installation work and the operation is concerned. It is necessary for the rails to extend into the room by an amount equal to the height of the door and they must als be slightly inclined inwardly to yield a satisfactory function. It is easily realized that the installation work is comparatively complicated also disregarding the case, which is by no means uncommon, when the available interior head room is substantially greater than the height of the door which makes the means for suspending the rails bulky and disturbing. A further drawback is that doors of that type require a relatively great control power, especially near the closed position. Still another disadvantage is that the manufacturing and installation costs are high, one reason for the level of the last-mentioned costs being that it is highly desirable that the assembling is carried out by mechanics specially trained by the manufacturer.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a door assembly of the kind above referred to at which said disadvantages and deficiencies are eliminated so that the door is cheap to manufacture, simple to assemble and easy to control. Another object of the incention is to provide a door assembly which operates very smoothly and with a minimum of noise. A further object of the invention is to provide a door assembly the frame of which supports the entire central mechanism. The principle of design last referred to does, in addition to the simplified assembling work, avoid the need for disturbing mountings secured to the ceiling of the room or, stated in other words, the entire door with its related frame and control arrangement may in prefabricated form be supplied from the factory as a complete and self-contained unit.

Summary of the invention A door frame includes two vertical posts, and a door is swingably supported by the frame between a substantially vertical closed position and a horizontal open position. A support arm is rigidly attached to each of said 3,464,161 Patented Sept. 2, 1969 posts and extends inwardly therefrom. A pair of movable arms is provided, each of these movable arms being rigidly and non-niovably secured to the upper portion of the garage door and extending substantially perpendicular thereto. These movable arms are also pivotally connected to the inner ends of the support arms. A damping means is connected between each support arm and its associated movable arm, the support arms being disposed substantially horizontally. The arrangement is such that when the door is in its open position the movable arms are substantially vertically oriented, while in the closed position of the door, the support arms and the movable arms are disposed in parallel relationship to one another with the movable arms positioned above the support arms.

The invention will now be described in greater detail, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 is a partial isometric view of a small garage building equipped iwth a door assembly designed according to one embodiment of the invention, the door being shown in its completely open position:

FIGURE 2 is an isometric view, drawn to a greater scale, showing the control mechanism at the one side of the door which again is in its open position;

FIGURE 3 corresponds to FIGURE 2 but illustrates the mechanism when the door is fully closed.

Reference numeral 1 designates a garage having a vertically swingable door 2 mounted in a frame comprising two vertical posts 3 and 4. To each of said posts there is secured a horizontal support arm 5 extending backwards, i.e., towards the interior of the garage. For rigid fixation of the arm it rests on a triangular bracket 6 welded to the arm and to the post. It is seen from FIG. 1 that the distance between arm 5 and the floor of the garage is considerably greater than the distance between the arm and the top of the door opening. Calculations and practical tests have shown that the former distance should preferably equal 1.5-2.5 times the latter one. It will be appreciated that this location of the two arms if of great importance for the space occupied by the control mechanism and it should be emphasized that this space is considerably less than for prior art doors.

At each side of the door 2 there is a movable arm 7, the one end of which is secured to the door whereas the other end is pivotably connected to the support arm 5. As can be seen from FIGURE 2, that articulation is not direct because arm 7 has a tongue 7a rigidly secured thereto and extending substantially perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of arm 7. It is connected to a pivot 8. Between arms 5 and 7 there is interconnected a damping device 9. According to the embodiment of the invention here illustrated that device consists of a gas spring, i.e., a piston-cylinder unit filled with gas and adapted so that the sliding movement of the piston can be braked as desired. This device does also afford a possibility to vary the magnitude of the force which has to be overpowered for relative movement between the piston and the cylinder. At its cylinder end device 9 is pivotably connected to support arm 5 by means of a pivot 10 whereas the free end of the piston rod is in a correesponding manner connected to a pivot 11 in arm 7.

The operation of the arrangement above described should be directly understandable. It should, however, be emphasized that thanks to the presence of tongue 7a the gravitational force which, in the open position of door 2, is absorbed by support arms 5 will have its resultant line of action located so far rearwardly that there will appear a force component striving to maintain the door in its open position. That design in combination with the damping devices 9 makes it possible to balance the door so that the net force required for operating it becomes extremely small. A further advantage is that the magnitude of that force remains substantially constant within the entire operational range between the closed and opened positions of the door. In one preferred embodiment of the invention support arms 5 and pivot arms 7 are as shown on the drawing given a channel-shaped crosssection and are mounted so that in the closed position of the door the open side of the channel is faced downwardly in respect of the pivot arms and upwardly as far as the support arms are concerned. Thanks to this arrangement, when the door is closed, each damping 'cylinder 9 will be located inside a protected space omnilaterally closed excepting the two narrow horizontal slots between the pairs of the opposite flanges of the channel sections.

The embodiment here described and shown is only intended to illustrate the general inventive concept which is that all of the control assembly is attached to the door and the door frame and comprises a pivot arm and a support arm, respectively, at at least the one side of the door opening. It should be understood that the positions and mechanical construction of the arms may be altered and that the same is true as far as the damping devices 9 are concerned. In some cases it is suitable to supplement the arrangement with means, for example, leaf springs, disposed between the pivot arm and the support arm and exerting a damping action during the final portion of the closing movement of the door. This does on the one hand make the final phase of the closing cycle softer because a contribution is given to the action of devices 9 and, on the other, the door becomes balanced also in the corresponding position.

What I claim is:

1. A door assembly comprising a door frame including two substantially vertical posts, a door swingably supported by said frame between a substantially vertically closed position and a substantially horizontal open position, the swingable support for said door including a substantially horizontal support arm rigidly secured to each of said posts and extending inwardly therefrom, a pair of movable arms each of which is rigidly and non-movably secured at one end to an upper portion of said door and extending substantially perpendicular to the door, the opposite end of each of said movable arms being swingably connected to the inner end of an associated support arm, so that in the open position of the door, said movable arms are substantially vertically oriented, and in the closed position of the door each of said movable arms is positioned substantially parallel with and above an associated support arm, and damping means connected between each support arm and an associated movable arm.

2. Apparatus are defined in claim 1 wherein each of said support arms and each of said movable arms are of channel-shaped cross-sectional configuration so that each support arm and the associated movable arm defines a protected space within which the associated damping device is disposed.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said damping device comprises a pneumatic cylinder.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,540,761 2/1951 Sjoboen 49-205 X 2,603,842 7/1952 Robinson 49-206 X 2,729,862 1/1956 Marjarna 49--205 3,261,051 7/ 1966 Priest 16-163 3,303,613 2/1967 Seuntjens 49-131 DENNIS L. TAYLOR, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

